Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The concept of complexity is inherent both in psychic systems and social sys-
tems, which are the two types of systems we are concerned about in this chapter.
Social systems and psychic systems are observing systems based on meaning,
implying that they choose to actualize something and leave other things alone.
According to the system characteristics mentioned, the result is that in principle,
the individual system's unique selection decides what the system chooses to actual-
ize and therefore is contingent upon a premise for social systems' activities (based
on communication) and psychic systems' activities (based on conscious activities,
i.e., knowledge construction). The specific characteristics concerning psychic sys-
tems and social systems are unfolded below. A point at this moment is that the
concepts and theoretical framework presented so far have consequences for the way
the concepts of learning and teaching are defined, and that has further implications
when we are talking about teachers as designers of environments for teaching and
learning.
Psychic Systems and Social Systems
Psychic systems operate in and maintain themselves via conscious activities (e.g.,
thoughts, emotions, and intuitions). The concept of the human being is highly
complicated (Luhmann, 1995, p. 40)
A human being may appear to himself or to an observer as a unity, but he is not a sys-
tem. And it is less possible to form a system of out of a collection of human beings. Such
assumptions overlook the fact that the human being cannot observe what occurs within him
as a physical, chemical, and living process. The living system is inaccessible to the psychic
system; is must itch, hurt, or in some other way attract attention in order to stir another level
of system formation - the consciousness of the psychic system - into operation (Luhmann,
1995, p. 40)
A psychic system designates a specific system of a “human being's” many sys-
tems, such as the neurological system and the digestive system. A psychic system is
related to consciousness and consciousness makes use of thinking in a broad sense
(Luhmann, 1988). In this theoretical framework, the learner (students as well as
teachers) is observed as a psychic system, and this system operates in and maintains
itself by means of conscious activities.
Communication
Social systems operate in and maintain themselves through communication. And
the concept of communication is defined as the synthesis of three selections: (1) the
selection of information, (2) the selection of utterance (selected by the utterer, e.g.,
the teacher), and (3) the selection of understanding (selected by the addressee, e.g.,
the student).
